Cargill's new plant north of Great Falls along the Old Havre Highway has a fish on every wall.

That is because Cargill's Great Falls location will create canola oil that is genetically modified to be high in omega-3 for use in feed on fish farms.

Cargill’s omega-3 canola is currently under USDA review and is being grown on 5-acre test fields in central Montana. Horton manages the process from seed to harvest, including fertilization, harvest schedules and setting up grower contracts

“We can get the same amount of omega-3 from 160 acres of our canola as you can get from 1.7 million pounds of fish.”

Keith Horton, Cargill

“Inside that 5-acre test field, we’ll have close to 1,000 different types of canola,” said Keith Horton, Cargill’s senior trial agronomist.

That’s fine if you’re eating ocean-caught fish, but in order for the farm-raised salmon you get in the grocery store to have omega-3, it must eat feeder fish that have had it as part of their diet.

Cargill cuts out the middle fish, creating omega-3-rich canola oil that can be put directly into fish feed.

“We can get the same amount of omega-3 from 160 acres of our canola as you can get from 1.7 million pounds of fish,” said Horton.

The canola provides a land-based source of omega-3 for farm-raised fish, adding to the sustainability of fish as a human food source and taking the stress off the fish populations in oceans, he said.

“We would eliminate some of that pressure on the ocean by growing it here in Montana on a farm,” Horton said.

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Keith Horton, Cargill's senior trial agronomist, manages seeding to harvesting of canola plants genetically modified to produce omega-3. "Primarily what we'll do here in Great Falls is look to make better varieties of that omega-3 canola," he said.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

Cargill makes non-GMO canola oil, as well. All the cooking oil used by McDonald’s Restaurants in North America is from Cargill.

There’s nothing flashy about Cargill's new building north of Great Falls.

In fact, you might drive by dozens of times and still have no idea what goes on inside. But if you’re from Montana, there might be something familiar about the building’s shape.

The privately held agribusiness giant based in Minneapolis operated locally from a temporary office in Fort Benton since 2015. They began building north of Great Falls near the Old Havre Highway in July 2017, finishing in October.

Designers built Cargill’s main lobby structure to look like a grain elevator, and the decor inside echoes that look. In fact, the barn wood accents came from defunct grain elevators across Montana, including an old Cargill elevator in Hingham.

“It’s kind of nice to maintain that bridge, that connection,” said Horton.

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Canola blooms near Great Falls(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/KRISTEN INBODY)

Horton also coordinates outreach, networking, community contact and volunteerism to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Great Falls Public Library and the Great Falls Community Food Bank.

That local focus includes hiring in-state whenever possible, purchasing equipment from local and regional dealers and offering their meeting space to local businesses.

“Anything that we can source locally, we do that,” Horton said. “It’s been a really good way for us to connect to the community and let them know what we’re all about.”

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Cargill, a Minneapolis-based company, is testing strains of canola genetically modified to contain omega-3 fatty acids in Montana to be used in fish feed.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

Cargill’s work also offers Montana farmers another way to diversify their production, Horton said.

Right now, the facility’s work is isolated to Montana.

Cargill has six employees at the Great Falls plant, but the facility has the potential to employ 20 to 25, including interns and contract employees once they bring a sales team and full laboratory online.